New Mexico (USA) - A team of research scientists are engaged in a sequence of test flights for a high-altitude balloon. It will be used to deploy a 1 meter camera capable of viewing at the Earth's main power system, the sun (which is called Sol). It will record images with highest resolutions ever made by man. Features as small as 30km across will be visible. Scientists hope to get a better understanding of the nature of surface eruptions on the sun so as to predict dangerous solar flares.

Email addicts everywhere are rejoicing because of Gmail’s new IMAP feature. Emails from the popular web-based service can now be synchronized almost immediately to several devices at once, all without having to visit the Gmail.com website.

A Long March 3A rocket sent the Chang'e-1 probe on its 239,000 mile journey to the moon, another step in China's attempt to send robotic explorers to the moon by 2020. China has four primary mission goals for the vehicle. The first will be to a comprehensive 3D model of the moon and its various surface formations, including some rarely photographed polar regions. The second is to measure 14 specific chemicals and their concentrations in the lunar atmosphere. Third will be to measure the thickness of the soil all around the surface.

Champaign (IL) - University researchers have created a new distributed computing environment which will join the ranks of many other such endeavors. It will allow theoretical models of the universe to be tested against real, observed data. The goal is to use a brute force method to find out which theory best matches up with the observed data. It's called Cosmology@home, and is available to anyone who wants to participate. Could your computer be the one that discovers the origin of our universe?

Troy (NY) - Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a novel approach toward utilizing one of the most essential elements on the face of the earth, Carbon. Nanotubes built from carbon exhibit a unique property. They have an ability to be nearly perfectly linearly flexible, and without losing any of their flexibility after repeated distortion cycles. This ability translates into a very accurate tool for measuring pressure.

Resistor-based memory is not an entirely new technology. But making it with traditional semiconductor manufacturing tools and processes is. Researchers have developed a way to bring this high-speed memory to manufacturers.

Traditional push scooters are going high-tech with lithium-ion batteries. At the Alternative Car Expo in Santa Monica, we test drove the Motorboard 2000 XR which can speed at up to 15 miles-per-hour for 20 miles per charge. David Roth, the co-founder and inventor of the scooter, told us that the lithium-ion batteries charge quickly and have enough power to push a 250 lbs person.

Cambridge (UK) - Christoforos Moutafis, a nanoscale researcher at Cambridge University, has uncovered some amazing magnetic properties of Iron-Platinum nanodots. Something one of the scientists calls "non-trivial mathematical objects" have been discovered which reveal a type of magnetic monobubble. It is a mathematical curiosity, but one which could form the foundational structure of future magnetic storage devices, like high-density hard drives or magnetic memory.